It’s kind of unnerving how all the news right now is either Choi Jin-shil’s sudden death or the 13th Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF), and sometimes while looking through the news listings, it’s easy to confuse the two based on the thumbnail images. (Given the timing, as far as I can see, there were no overlaps in attendees — or at least, very few — between PIFF and Choi Jin-shil’s funeral viewing.)

October 2 saw the opening night to the nine-day festival; PIFF closes on October 10 and is the largest film festival in Korea, and one of the largest in Asia. Over the course of the week, more than 300 films will be screened from 60-plus countries.

Kim Rae-won and Han Eun-jung, above, came as brand models for PIFF sponsor L’Oreal. Other famous name actors showed up to the red carpet night; the opening film was Kazakhstan’s The Gift to Stalin, as well as the Hyun Bin & Lee Bo-young film I Am Happy.

PIFF’s red carpet >>

Tags: Cha Seung-won, Choi Jung-yoon, Choi Kang-hee, Eom Ji-won, Eugene, fashion, film festivals, Go Ara, Gong Hyo-jin, Han Eun-jung, Hyun Bin, Jang Dong-gun, Joo Ji-hoon, Jung Ryeo-won, JYP, Kang Hye-jung, Kim Ji-soo, Kim Jung-eun, Kim Rae-won, Kim So-yeon, Kim Sun-ah, Lee Bo-young, Lee Dong-wook, Lee Jung-jin, Lee Seon-kyun, Lee Wan, Lee Yeon-hee, Oh Ji-ho, Park Eun-hye, Park Hae-il, Park Jin-hee, Shin Hyun-joon, Shin Mina, Song Chang-eui, Yeh Ji-won

Filed under: Chungmuro/Film by javabeans - 46 Comments →

The “Oricon Comet” Younha

The Korean pop music industry, like the recording industry worldwide, has been in a constant downward slide in recent years. The reasons for that are all the usual suspects: General sales slump for the CD market, rise of digital media, and, oh yeah, suckiness of the product.

Personally, I think kpop is both worse and better now than it’s been in years. It all depends on how you define “kpop,” I guess. What’s typically seen as kpop is the stuff you see on those live music shows, the girl- and boy-band pop groups, the idol stars, the overchoreographed dances, the lip-synching Barbie dolls. But the industry has diversified — there are so many niches now, subgenres, pockets of creativity — and while “mainstream pop” used to be all there was, now there are alternatives. So does kpop suck these days? Some of it really, really does. But some of it really, really doesn’t.

The following takes a look at the mainstream market and finds hope for the future of popular music.

2007 showed a different side than what the music industry has seen for the past few years. Up through last year, the state of affairs looked dark as things declined with no bottom in sight, but this year, there were singers whose successful hits shined a bit of light. Here, we take a look at a few of the praiseworthy singers who’ve enabled the pop music industry to look once more to a hopeful future. …

SONG OF THE DAY

Younha - “한 우산 아래” (under one umbrella) [ zShare download ]

The Top 5 List >>

Tags: Big Bang, JYP, kpop, Lim Jeong-hee, Younha

Filed under: Kpop News by javabeans - 31 Comments →

Actor Song Il Kook

 
Or perhaps the question should be: Who’s getting attention for voting?

On the 19th (yesterday in Korea if we’re going by the time difference), Korea held its presidential elections. (Psst. Lee Myung-bak won.)

As for voting — turnout was low, but that didn’t stop the celebrities from showing up to exercise their civic duty. As with anything, people are much more interested when a famous person does it! (God I feel shallow).

Some highlights:

Lee Young Ae: The A-list actress got up early to cast her vote at 6:50am: “I’m a morning person.”

Actress Kim Hee Sun arrived at 4pm in Kangnam to vote quickly and speed away; her husband voted at a different station, since the newlywed couple’s marriage registration paperwork isn’t complete yet.

SONG OF THE DAY

TA Copy - “Glory Days” [ zShare download ]

Who else showed up to vote? >>

Tags: Han Ye-seul, JYP, Kim Hee-sun, Lee Young-ae, Moon Geun-young, Younha

Filed under: Celebrity News by javabeans - 14 Comments →